Milwaukee, WI… Milwaukee Chamber Theatre will present its eighth Young Playwrights Festival Showcase this May, celebrating the winners of our local high school playwriting competition. Each of the three winning plays – SAYING GRACE by Alexandra Gieske,PRIDE & PANCAKES by Kyle Radomski, and THIS JUST IN… by Malaina Moore – will be presented at each performance. This year’s presentation will also feature an afternoon of Honorable Mention Staged Readings from three runner-up playwrights.

MCT’s YPF Showcase provides an opportunity for three young playwrights to see their works fully produced on stage, and to learn from the emerging actors, designers and directors that are part of the creative team. Alexander Coddington directs SAYING GRACE, in which a family navigates complex choices of care for parents as they reach their 50th wedding anniversary in an assisted living facility. Jake Brockmann directs PRIDE & PANCAKES, where a pancake-eating champion cheers his friend on to another, perhaps worthier goal. Grace DeWolff directs THIS JUST IN…, following a young Milwaukeean grieving the loss of a friend due to an incident with police and seeking justice and change in response.

MCT’s Young Playwrights Festival is the culminating event in a series of free playwriting workshops at several Milwaukee-area high schools. Ten plays are chosen each year from an annual competition that encourages students to write original one-act plays exploring themes, genres and relationships from a uniquely adolescent perspective.

Of the top 20 plays chosen over two years, three are selected by a panel of local theatre artists, educators and past winners to receive full productions, along with a cash award and invaluable professional guidance and feedback. This year, three additional plays were selected for public readings during the run of the showcase: MEMORY ROAD, written by Colin Acheson and directed by Wes Schultz; ROAD TO TRANQUILITY, written by Katlyn Brookens and directed by Di’Monte Henning; and THE GRAY AREA IN MY LIFE, written by Kristen Leer and directed by Amber Smith.

“A quick and intense process, the YPF Showcase is a celebration of local talent—and a potential launch pad for YPF artists’ further work in Milwaukee and beyond,” says Marcella Kearns, MCT’s Associate Artistic Director who also serves as the Lead Educator and Producer. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to gather so many up-and-coming artists to share our playwrights’ stories: six established and emerging directors; a host of emerging designers and production staff; and two dozen actors. “

“The work of the winning young playwrights is touching, raw, hilarious, and insightful,” Kearns adds. “Many of the plays were written through an in-school MCT Playwriting Residency, and we owe a debt to the careful guidance of the playwrights’ classroom teachers throughout the process. Their shepherding from school to the MCT stage is the first, most crucial part of the collaborative process.”

The Young Playwrights Festival Showcase 2016-2017 performs May 4, 5, and 6 at 7:30 p.m. and May 7 at 2:00 p.m. at the Broadway Theatre Center’s Studio Theatre, 158 N. Broadway in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. Each performance will feature all three one-acts and a talkback. (The three honorable mention scripts will be read on May 6 at 2 p.m. These readings will be offered free of charge.) Tickets for the showcase are $18 for adults and $12 for students, seniors and MCT subscribers. Tickets are available Monday through Saturday from noon-6:00 p.m. at the Broadway Theatre Center Box Office or by phone at (414) 291-7800. Tickets can be purchased online – 24 hours a day at milwaukeechambertheatre.com.

The Young Playwrights Festival Showcase 2016-17 is sponsored by The Woman’s Club of Wisconsin Foundation, The Deborah Aronson Theatre Education Fund, Bader Philanthropies, Morgan Stanley Foundation, the United Performing Arts Fund, the City of Milwaukee Arts Board, and the Wisconsin Arts Board.